Monthly Archives: May 2022
So Far, So Good . . .
Well, as I had hoped, I got the new Shipping computer in place and working this morning, with only a couple of bobbles. Mostly due to the correct printer not connected with the correct program. But Jennifer successfully processed all of today’s orders with no problems.
Right now I got the new computer set up right next to the old one, but if everything goes OK on Monday, then on Wednesday I’ll move the old one back into my area. I’ll leave it on for a couple of days in case I need to move some forgotten data over to the new one.
Glad I got this done before we go on vacation in a couple of weeks.
Tomorrow it’s Pho Barr and WalMart once again. Looking forward to a quiet weekend with nothing really scheduled except for a few chores around the rig.
Thanks to everyone for all the kind comments about my Ramses posts. It was an amazing exhibit, and to me, much better than the Pompeii one we saw several month back.
One thing that’s hard to wrap your head around is old the Egyptian civilization actually was.
Like –
When Ramses became Pharaoh in 1279 BC, the Pyramids were already 2000 years old
and
Cleopatra lived closer to the moon landing than to the building of the Pyramids.
Amazing!
Big Trees
May 13, 2010
Redwoods and Cat Barf, again…
Since we had a 295 mile trip today, we got an early start and left the Sonoma-Marin fairgrounds in Petaluma about 8:30 am heading initially about 12 miles north to a small Pacific Pride truck stop we had scouted out yesterday.
I wanted to fill up with diesel before we got up into the boonies of the Redwood National Park. And my experience here just reinforced why I don’t like the big truck stops like Flying J, Pilot, TA, etc.. I was in and out in a little over 10 minutes with a 100 gallons of diesel, unlike about a month ago when we left Las Vegas and stopped at a TA truck stop on the outskirts of town. It took me over 40 minutes to get diesel and get back on the road.
About a hundred miles down the road we started encountering our first big redwoods. We had been seeing smaller ones, about 50-60 feet or so, soon after we left Petaluma. But now we were seeing really big ones.
Some of these were over 100 feet high and 8-10 feet in diameter. It’s hard to believe that we’ll be seeing some redwoods here that are over 3 times higher.
Along with the redwoods, we encountered something else, another cat barf situation. It was Mister this time. Don’t know why this has started. Neither cat had a problem with all the curvy roads last year in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, so why now?
Maybe we’ll try not feeding them on travel mornings and see how that works.
About 2 pm we stopped at a Pepper’s Restaurant in Fortuna for lunch. They were located in a shopping center parking lot so we had no problem finding a place to park the rig.
This was unlike two other stops we tried to make today. We first tried to find a place to eat in Leggett, a small town about half way along our trip, but neither of the two restaurants were open. A little while later we drove thru Garberville, a very nice little with a lot of restaurants, all open. But we found no place to pull over and park the rig.
We ate at a Pepper’s in Petaluma last week and liked it, and it was good this time too.
We both had sandwiches that were large enough that we had leftovers to take with us for supper tonight. We also got a piece of coconut cream to split tonight for dessert.
Our road, US 101 was pretty good. It was mostly 4 lane with a smattering of 2 lane, usually thru the mountain curves and steep hills.
We had seen several signs about “Elk Crossing” along our route today, but about 30 minutes before we got to our park, we came across a small herd of elk right along the highway, only about 30 feet away. They didn’t seem to mind, or even take notice when we stopped right beside them.
We pulled into Klamath River RV Park about 4:30 and got set up. The view is certainly better than we’ve had for past week. This is the view our the front of our coach.
And this is the view from out back.
We will be here for 3 nights and plan on leaving Sunday morning. Tomorrow we’re going to take a drive thru the redwoods, and see some of the other sights around here.
Jimmy Buffet and American Pie
May 13, 2011
Margaritaville and Blueberries . . .
Yesterday was our last chance to check out some of the Vegas attraction on the Strip.
So, after we spent the morning resting up from our talk show trip to LA on Tuesday and Wednesday, we left the rig about 4 pm to have dinner at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville at the Flamingo Hotel on the Strip.
From a very large model of Jimmy’s seaplane hanging from the ceiling to a girl sliding down the side of a volcano into a blender of margaritas,
and then dancing on the bar, it was a great start to a fun evening.
Leaving Margaritaville, we drove down the Strip to the Border’s Book Store before heading up to Fremont Street to see the Fremont Street Experience. The Experience is a large video screen covering two city blocks in downtown Las Vegas that shows music videos every evening.
Out of the 4 shown every night, our favorite is the one set to Don McLean’s American Pie.
And something new this year is a Zipline Ride running almost 700 feet along under the screen.
You can even ride it during the show. You’re about 80 feet off the ground, traveling about 30 mph.
Then leaving Fremont, we headed back down the Strip to the Bellagio Hotel/Casino to taken in their famous water show.
But to get to the fountains in front we traveled through the lobby and found this beautiful ceiling made from enormous glass flowers 2 – 3 feet across. Just beautiful.
Our viewpoint for the show let us look out across the lake toward the Strip and the Paris Casino.
The water show runs for about 5 minutes every 15 minutes, and each time it uses a different song, We heard Debussy, Chopin, and Beethoven, and even some Elvis. Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture would have been neat.
The show is another one of those events that the camera really doesn’t do justice. But here goes.
I’ll try to post some video in the next day or so when I get a chance.
After a somewhat abortive attempt to find a Bob’s Big Boy to have a late snack, (We ended up at the HOME of the owner of Bob’s Big Boy Toys.), we ended up at Blueberry Hill Diner once again, finally get home at almost 1 am.
Who knew retirement would be so exhausting?
Moving To A New Gate
May 13, 2012
A New Record . . .
128 vehicles in and out today (Monday). That’s about one every 10 minutes for the 24 hours.
That’s too much like work!
They’re in the process of finishing up the well and big trucks are coming and going hauling out mud and other drilling fluids all day long. If they finish up on schedule then they’ll start tearing down on Wednesday, which is when we’ll move to the new site about 45 miles away.
However we still don’t know the specifics of the move yet, like is our pad ready? Hopefully we’ll know more tomorrow. If what other gate guards have told us works out, we’ll have several days free to relax and maybe drive into San Antonio, before the rig is set up and running at the new site. Certainly hope so, anyway.
Today marks the beginning of our 2nd month gate guarding. We plan on doing this another 3 months or so, before heading north.
Brandi and Lowell sent over some more Landon pics.
Here he is chilling out at Pink Berry. Cool glasses!
And here he is chowing down on Boudin Balls and Ranch Dressing at T-Bone Tom’s in Kemah.
That’s about it for today. IF we stay on schedule our next blog may be from our new site.
On To Lake Tahoe
May 13, 2013
It’s Time to Get Out of Dodge . . . Well, Las Vegas, anyway.
We left Apache Junction when the temps started getting into 3 digits, and now that weather has caught up with us. Officially it was 101 today, but it was 113 under our awning, so it’s just about time to hit the road.
We’ll leave here Wednesday and spend one night in Tonapah, NV where it will be 82/52. Starting Thursday we’ll be in South Lake Tahoe for two weeks where the temps are forecast to be in the high 60’s/ low 70’s and high 30’s/ low 40’s at night. Very, very nice.
I braved the heat for a while to finish topping off my house batteries with the distilled water I got yesterday, and also packed some stuff away to get a head start for Wednesday.
I also washed out a couple of compartments using my new Little Big Shot Super Hose Nozzle,
This thing is really neat. It will adjust your water spray from a needle-fine hard stream to a full spray. The needle spray is great for washing out areas without getting water all over everything next to it, and the full spray is great for washing your coach.
Then after working out in the heat, a nap seemed to be a good idea, and I was right.
Since we wanted to see the Bellagio Fountain Show after dark, we planned on a late dinner, so we picked up Jim and Peri Dean at 6pm and headed down Flamingo Rd. to the Flamingo Casino. We were having dinner at Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville located in the casino there.
Our meals were good, and there’s something entertaining always going on, from dancers on stilts,
to a bikini-clad girl sliding down the slide of a volcano into a giant margarita glass,
finishing up with a trapeze act hanging from a large fishing hook high over the crowd. Really neat.
By the time we finished dinner, it was after 8pm and now dark, so we walked down the Strip toward the Bellagio.
The shows are every 15 minutes so we didn’t have to wait long for the next one. In fact we stayed for 3 shows, since each one is different.
For a little more, you can check out this short video of a show.
Tomorrow we’ll start getting ready to travel, and then finish up with one last buffet at Boulder Station Casino with Jim and Peri, before we head out on Wednesday morning.
My Uncle Buddy and Aunt Virginia
May 13, 2015
R.I.P. to A Real American Hero . . .
My uncle, Theo Wesley Calvin, Jr., died this afternoon at the Floyd Fann State Veterans Home in Huntsville, AL.
He was 93.
I knew from an early age that, like my mother, her brother, Uncle Buddy (what I called him) had been in WWII. But it was only much later that I found out just what that entailed.
My family and I visited my mother’s family in Athens, AL, as long as I can remember. Here I am with my aunt Virginia and Uncle Buddy when I was about 18 months old.
This was probably in 1949.
Over the years, as I visited, and later lived in Athens, I learned more about his service to our country. One time exploring in my grandmother’s attic, I came across a WWII Army helmet that had ‘T. Calvin’ painted on the inside. And it also had a thumb-sized dent with a crack in it.
When I asked my uncle about it, he looked at me for a few moments and then said it happened the day after D-Day after his landing on Omaha Beach. He said it knocked him down, and his head rang for a week. Then he wouldn’t talk about it any more.
Over the years, I picked up more facts, like that he fought across Europe under the command of General George S. Patton in a Anti-Tank Company
It was only in the last few years that even more of the story came out with the appearance of a mystery envelope full of medals in 2012.
As it turns out, Uncle Theo not only landed at Normandy on D-Day in June 1944, but he was also was part of the Operation Torch landings in North Africa in November 1942, and the Operation Husky landings in Sicily in July 1943. In all, he fought in 7 campaigns during the war, and received a Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster, signifying that he was wounded twice, both times in France.
He also fought in the last major offensive of the war, the Battle of the Bulge during December 1944 – January 1945. Dug in near Bastogne, Belgium, he said it was so cold nobody wanted to fight. “We could see the enemy, but we didn’t shoot at them, and they didn’t shoot at us.”
Among the many medals Uncle Theo received were a Bronze Star, the Belgium Fourragere, and the French Legion of Honor.
In 2011, Theo was the Grand Marshal of the Veteran’s Day Parade in Athens, honoring him for his service.
And then in 2012, Lt. Gen. Richard P. Formica showed up to pin that envelope of new medals on SSgt Calvin, medals that had been forgotten and not awarded at the end of the war.
Since we’ve been RV’ing, we’ve always made it a point to visit our relatives in Athens, and especially to visit my Uncle Theo in the Veterans Home where he’s been for the last several years.
Our hearts go out to my Aunt Virginia, and the rest of the Calvin family in North Alabama.
He will be missed.
Our Truck House
May 13, 2016
Worse The Second Day . . .
Well, after a quiet morning, probably our last for a day or so, we headed out for Katy about 2:30, to pickup our grandson Landon so he can spend tonight with us in the ‘Truck House.” Unlike our last couple of trips south, this one was pretty smooth with no hang-ups or slowdowns.
We got to Brandi’s just about 4pm and Lowell had him all packed and ready to roll. Brandi was still at work, so Landon hugged Lowell and Miss Kitty, the dog., and we were on our way.
Going home, we took the new 99 Grand Parkway to avoid all the going-home traffic. And it really does. As soon as we got a mile or so off I-10 everyone was cruising at the 70 mph speed limit.
Well, no. Most everyone was doing 80 or above. This is like driving through west Texas, with absolutely nothing around you, just open countryside. So even through the route is further, and more expensive, than taking the Sam Houston Tollway, it’s certainly quicker during rush hour.
And there are the six entertaining toll booth charges. Where in the heck do they come up with toll amounts like $1.03, or $1.11, or even $1.98?
When I set our Garmin GPS to take us back to Conroe, the online traffic info said we would have 45 minute delay, and would be home about 6:15. But taking the Parkway we were back at the rig by 5:30. Nice!
Not actually back at the rig though, because we made a dinner stop at where Landon wanted to eat, Taco Bell.
The last time we ate at one was during our two month blowout repair sabbatical out in Prescott, AZ last year. It’s strange because we always like it, but it never comes up when we talk about where we want to eat.
Getting back to the rig for real, Landon changed into his swimsuit and I dropped he and Jan off at the park pool for about an hour and a half or so, before picking them up a little after 8pm.
Getting home, we all snuggled down and watched the first episode of Star Wars, well, the fourth in the episode list, but the first one for us when we saw it in 1977. Landon had never seen it, and was looking forward to it.
Finishing up, apparently a Treadmill Faceplant Face looks much worse the second day.
Here”s the first day.
And here’s the second day.
At least he’s smiling now.
Cardamom And La Pine
May 13, 2017
Ocean Rolls and Tacos . . .
It got cold enough last night that we thought we might wait up to a covering of snow, but no luck.
But we did get more white stuff on and off several times during the morning and afternoon, but none of it stuck around. The temp finally crept up to the low 40’s, staying mostly overcast all day.
For breakfast this morning, along with our coffee, we had half of our Cardamom Ocean Rolls from yesterday’s visit to the Sparrow Bakery.
Really good, especially with the cardamom flavor.
Later our daughter Brandi sent over these pics of Landon at hockey practice.
Looking pretty good on skates
Not sure if Landon just checked the other kid, or maybe he just likes short naps.
And here’s Landon with his uncle Chris who came up to watch practice.
About 4:30 we headed out for dinner at Cinco de Mayo down in La Pine, with a stop right next door to pick up our friend Dina.
Whoever recommended Cinco to us years ago is lost in the mists of bad memories, but if they read the blog, hopefully they’ll speak up. But whoever it was, it was a great recommendation.
Jan had the 3 item combo with a Chili Relleno, a Beef Taco, and a Beef Enchilada.
These are the biggest plates we’ve seen anywhere with a diameter of almost 19”, and they fill them up. So everyone had leftovers.
Dina got this huge Taco Salad.
I got the Carne Asada Dinner.
Everything more than met our expectations. Except their much-vaunted ‘Hot’ salsa. A number of the Yelp reviews talk about how hot it is. Well, maybe for Oregonians, but not for Texans.
In Texas it would be, maybe medium-hot. So I used some of my Volcanic Pepper Dust to spice things up.
Besides Habaneros and Scotch Bonnets, this also has Moruga Scorpion Peppers, the 2nd hottest pepper, in it.
What I haven’t yet had a chance to try is the Carolina Reaper, the world’s hottest pepper as of a couple of years ago.
That thing looks deadly just sitting there.
Tomorrow we’ll probably just stay at home, with Jan whipping up a batch of her world-famous chili. And I can guarantee it will be hotter than Cinco de Mayo’s salsa.
Bloody Mary’s And Mother’s Day
May 13, 2018
Mother’s Day Memories . . .
I’ve mentioned before that my mother was an Army Nurse during WWII. Her first command as a Captain in the Army Nurse Corp was at Fort Benning, GA, where she was Chief of Nursing while George Patton was there.
When Patton left for California to set the Desert Training Center for the Tank Corps, my mother, now Major White, was transferred to West Point where she spent the rest of the war, again as Chief of Nursing.
In August 1945, she and her nurses were on the train heading for New Orleans where they were to board a hospital ship heading for the coast of Japan to prepare for the coming invasion of the Japanese mainland. Then Hiroshima happened and they were turned back around
So it’s a good possibility that I’m only here because of the atomic bomb.
My father, on the other hand, a police detective in civilian life before he enlisted, spent the war in the Navy Shore Patrol, stationed in Chicago guarding the Navy Pier installation. He always said that he figured he did his part because “no Japs ever made it past Chicago.”
And then there’s a couple of the other mothers in my life, our daughter Brandi, and of course, my wife Jan.
Both here in one photo.
Jan and I headed out a little after 9am, on our way up to Katy,to meet up with our daughter Brandi, and her family. Then it was off to Anthonie’s Market Grill in nearby Simonton for a Mother’s Day get-together.
We’ve never eaten there before, but Brandi and Lowell had heard a lot of good things about it, and the reviews are great.
We were also meeting up with Brandi and Lowell’s friend’s Eric and Chantelle Nugent, and their son, Maddox.
Unfortunately Landon had wondered off.
And luckily for us, the reviews, if anything, were understated. The food was fantastic.
I started off with one of their House Specialty Bloody Mary’s.
Made with Spicy V-8, as well as some added heat, it was great. I’m not sure what they used to heat it up, but it wasn’t the Tabasco Sauce that many places use, because I can taste that. But it was much hotter than standard Spicy V-8 juice.
Jan had the 1/2 Flame-Kissed Rotisserie Chicken with the Grilled Asparagus.
I really like Wedge Salads, and I’d heard Anthonie’s had a great one. So I got the Wedge Salad with Grilled Chicken.
Brandi and Lowell both got the Ribeye, Brandi’s with their Creamy Spinach Stuffed Grilled Tomato. Brandi gave me a couple of bites, and this was a really good piece of meat.
One of the things that make Anthonie’s so good is that, despite the high-quality of the food, the prices are on the level of a Longhorn or Saltgrass Steakhouse. Not bad at all.
Hopefully we’ll get to go back soon.
On a side note, Brandi and Chantelle are leaving tomorrow morning for the Dominican Republic and the Punta Cana resort area. Chantelle is a travel agent and is always winning sales contests for free trips, resort stays, etc.
So she and Brandi get to spend an all-expenses paid 5 day stay at an all-inclusive resort there. Nice!
After that great meal, Lowell, Landon, and I drove back to their house, while Jan and Brandi headed out to get Mother’s Day Mani-Pedi’s. So they came home with pretty toes, and Lowell and I got to nap.
So a good time was had by all.
We headed home about 3pm, with a detour by our new storage room. We had brought a loaded bin and some other things to drop off, and also finally install our combo lock on the door.
I was happy to see that no one stole our stuff before we got it locked up
Thought for the Day:
“The amount of ammo you need is determined after the gunfight.”
.
Good Steak and More . . .
Jan and I were on the road by 10:30 this morning, heading up to the Spring area for our monthly lunch at the Longhorn Steakhouse, along with friends Debi and Ed Hurlburt.
We all started out with salads, Jan and mine’s, with Bleu Cheese dressing.
Very good.
Then of course, everyone got steak, with Jan getting her usual Flo’s Filet, the 9oz version,
with the Steamed Broccoli.
The white sauce on both our plates is Creamy Horseradish, which we both like with our steaks.
I got a Ribeye, what else, the 12oz one, with the Fried Okra.
The Fried Okra was delicious, though different, from the usual Southern fried version.
Though I usually like Saltgrass’ steaks better, this ribeye was one of the best I’ve had.
Really good.
We had our usual great time, and have already scheduled the date/time/place for next month’s get-together.
We were on our way home a little after 2:30, and were home by about 4pm, after a stop at Cowboy Coffee for Cold, Blended, Sugar-Free Hazelnut Lattes with Almond Milk.
A very nice day.
Gators and More Gators
May 12, 2009
Gliding thru the ‘Glades…
This morning we headed back up the Tamiami Trail into the Everglades to take an airboat ride.
We passed a place called Coopertown Airboats on our way down thru the Everglades from Ft. Myers and thought we’d check them out.
Not Us, but one like ours!
And it was a blast!
The water levels are low in the Everglades so in some cases we were airboating over mud flats and not water, but an airboat doesn’t really care as long as there are no stumps.
And there were alligators everywhere.
Another Great Day!
Buzzards Are Never A Good Sign
May 12, 2012
Our New Home ??
Yesterday (Friday) marked our 2nd week of gate guarding here at this Marathon site. And we probably won’t hit 3 weeks because our rig will be leaving around the middle of next week, and we’re probably going with it.
At least we think so. The Marathon people want us to follow them, but we haven’t heard definitely from Gate Guard Services yet.
Since I was over near the new drill site today I decided to take a look at the area. The road is pretty good, much, much better than our first gate. The first 3 miles are regular two-lane paved road, with the last 5 miles consisting of a very good gravel road. There are already a couple of drill sites in the area, with a lot of heavy truck traffic, so the roads are being kept up.
Here’s the turnoff to the drill site. The pad is a mile or so down this road, so I don’t know if we would be parked here, or closer in. I couldn’t get to the drill site itself because they were still working on the road back in there.
But this doesn’t bode well. Just to the left of this turn-in, I saw this.
Maybe this move isn’t such a good idea after all.
Or is the road back in there worst than i thought?
Also yesterday, our diesel generator started acting up. The diesel part was fine, The generator itself was the problem. The L2 side kept dropping below 105 volts and our Progressive EMS was shutting down power to the rig to protect our AC’s.
The L-1 side was also low, about 112 volts, but still within limits. Since it was in the 80’s and we needed the AC’s, I disconnected from the generator and started up our coach generator. Then my next step was to call Mark, our support guy.
He was out here in about 20 minutes to check things out. By this time the L2 voltage was down to about 80 volts. Not good. And after fiddling with the voltage adjustment with no success, he declared the generator deceased and called to have a new one brought out.
So in about another 30 minutes our new generator trailer was in place and purring along. The replacement generator also solved our other problem of the frequency being off and making our clocks run slow. So that was a bonus.
I’ve now had some time to play with my new Kindle Fire, when I can get it away from Jan. It looks like we may end up being a two Kindle Fire family like we ended up with two regular Kindles.
Getting down to basics, I really like it. It’s great for reading Kindle books in low light, and even outside as long as your not in the direct sun. The color screen is bright and looks good.
The web browser works great and seems to be fast. I’ve not noticed any problems on my regular websites.
Battery life seems to be pretty good. Although, like the regular Kindle, it helps to keep the Wi-Fi turned off when you’re not using it.
Now for the Cons:
The glass screen is very reflective and attracts fingerprints like a toy store attracts kids. But I’ve ordered a screen protector sheet kit that’s supposed to take care of that problem. I also ordered a case that looks pretty nice. I’ll let you know how they work out.
I was surprised to find out how many of favorite Droid apps aren’t available for the Fire. Especially odd since they both use pretty much the same OS.
That’s about it for today. I’ll talk more about the Fire as I play with it. (When I can get it away from Jan, that is.)
Ziplining In Vegas
May 12, 2013
I Can’t Believe I Ate the Whole Thing . . .
And Lived To Tell About It.
So far.
After a lazy morning, I went outside to do some battery maintenance. I wanted to add some distilled water to the batteries and double check the connections. But I quickly found a problem.
My 1 gallon jug of distilled water had sprung a leak and was pretty much empty. So I’ll have to pick up a gallon or so today or tomorrow to finish things up.
Jan and I headed out about 2:30 for an afternoon of dining and sheer terror. Well, maybe sheer terror for her.
Our first stop was the ATM at a Chase Bank and then it was over to the Fremont Street Experience at the top of the Strip.
We got parked at a nearby parking garage, and then first up was the terror part.
Jan had decided that despite her somewhat fear of heights she was going to do the zip line that runs down through Fremont Street.
So we got her ticket at the FlightLinez Zip Line store and then took the elevator up to the 5th floor.
That let’s you walk directly out on the platform. The smaller tower in the front here is the one presently in use. The taller one in the back is the new one coming on line soon. It will be higher, faster, and longer.
Some of you may be wondering why I’m not doing this.
Well, someone has to take the pictures, right. But the real reason is the weight limit of 250 pounds. I could probably squeak by on the limit, but I would have to do it in the nude, and I don’t think that would be an option.
Or a pretty sight for anyone looking up. Just saying.
The present zip line stops at the platform at the lower side of this photo. The new one will be higher and go all the way to the end of the covered area.
Here they’re getting Jan and her flight buddy strapped in and ready to go.
Ready, set, GO.
And a safe touchdown at the other end.
Here’s the video of her flight.
Jan’s Fremont Street Zip Line Ride
Jan said she enjoyed it, but that her knees were still shaking a half hour later.
It will be interesting to see if she will do the higher, faster, longer version next time.
The next item on our agenda was a little scary too.
The Heart Attack Grill.
It’s located at the front of the Fremont Street Experience, right on the Strip. It’s a place we had to try at least once.
They do have a lot of fun with the concept.
From the disclaimers,
to the hospital gowns everyone has to wear,
to the ID bracelets everyone is given. The white one is for the Heart Attack Grill, the blue one is for the Zip Line. Actually I think the gowns would be a good idea at some BBQ rib places I’ve been to.
Jan got the Single Bypass Burger and the Flatline Fries. I got the Double Bypass with Bacon, but without fries because we were going to share Jan’s order.
The Flatline Fries were really good. They’re sliced and then fried to order. IN LARD.
HMMM! LARD!
The way fries used to be cooked.
Besides their large selection of alcoholic drinks, the only others are water and Cokes. But the Cokes are the ones from Mexico made with real sugar, and not corn syrup.
Here’s the burger menu, with one to eight patties, and 5 to 40 strips of bacon (5 per patty).
And here’s the Octuple Bypass Burger. How do you even eat something like that.
Even my Double I ended up eating with a fork. If I went here again I’d have them leave off the Chili. It’s good, but it makes it too messy
Oh, and if you weigh over 350 pounds you can eat here free. Or just eat here a few times until you then weigh over 350, and then eat here free from then on.
Ready to leave, we stopped in the Walgreen’s there and I got a couple of gallons of distilled water for my batteries to use when we get home.
Along the way we stopped off at Boulder Station Casino once again to register our Boarding Passes for the weekend drawings. And as it turns out, I won 1000 points in the last drawing. That’s $10 in slot machine money.
Getting home, I had planned to work on the batteries again, but that burger made me too sleepy so I took a two hour nap. Very nice.
Tomorrow we’re going to eat at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville in the Flamingo Casino with Jim and Peri Dean, and then check out the fountain show at the Bellagio.
Bad ‘Q
May 12, 2014
Never, never, ever, ever . . .
Order Brisket at a Memphis BBQ place!
Since we had a long 360 mile run today, we were up at 7, had our coffee and muffins, and were on our way by 8 a.m. This was made easier by the fact that we didn’t unhitch the toad, or even lower the levelers last night.
We stopped at a couple of rest areas for breaks, and Jan fixed us peanut butter crackers for a snack at one of these.
About 2:30 we pulled into the Tom Sawyer RV Park right on the Mississippi River in West Memphis, AR. We’ve stayed here twice before, and it’s one of our favorite parks.
After getting set up and resting up for a while, about 4:30 we headed across the river to have some Memphis BBQ. We had planned to eat at Charles Vergos’ Rendezvous where we ate two years ago and really loved, but to our disappointment, they’re closed on Mondays.
So checking on line for Memphis Best BBQ, Central BBQ kept coming up in pretty much every list. So we decided to give it a try.
And it was good, but it was no Rendezvous.
I ordered the Rib Combo Plate with ribs, pulled pork, and ‘brisket’. Note the ‘brisket’ is in quotes. For my two sides, I got BBQ Beans, and homemade garlic potato chips.
First, the pluses:
The pulled pork was delicious. Really good.
The Ribs were also good, with a lot of meat on the bones.
The BBQ Beans were also very good, and chock full of meat pieces.
Also good were the homemade potato chips.
The mild sauce was very good, very tasty, so I had high hopes for the hot version.
Now the minuses:
Although the ribs were good, they were the smaller baby-back ribs, and not the full-sized pork ribs. But that’s just personal preference.
As far as the hot sauce goes, it tasted like they had just added Tabasco or some other vinegar-based hot sauce to their mild sauce. And again, it seems all I could taste was vinegar. So I ended up using the mild sauce, and then adding some of my ghost pepper/ground habanero powder to heat it up.
Now to the ‘brisket’. But I’m not sure I would call it brisket, and I doubt anyone from Texas would either. Note the pile of meat-looking stuff in the photo above, between the chips and the ribs.
It’s more like thin sliced roast beef, tough and chewy, and with no real taste. It reminded of deli meat you buy in a package at the supermarket.
But not as good.
I had seen a couple of references in the online reviews about the brisket at restaurants around town, but did not imagine it would be this bad.
As far as Jan’s meal, she had the pulled pork sandwich and said it was delicious.
One interesting thing about Central BBQ is that it’s right across the street from the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot in 1968. The entire area is now part of The Civil Rights Museum.
Getting back to the park about 6 we sat out on the river bank and watched the boats and big barges go by.
Mister enjoyed it too. It you look carefully below, you’ll see a big furry lump rolling around on the concrete.
The sites here have concrete pads and are right on the river.
Mister certainly enjoyed it.
Some enormous barges go by here. This one consist of 21 separate barges strapped together, 7 long and 3 wide.
The tug’s props really stir up the water,
making a continuous ripple effect behind the stern.
We first stayed here in 2010, but the flooding of the Mississippi in 2011 just about wiped the park out. The sign below marks the high water point during the flooding.
“How long can you tread water?”
Tomorrow we got a short run of 137 miles up to Sikeston, MO, home of Lambert’s Throwed Rolls.
Guess where we eating supper?
More From Prescott
May 12, 2015
I Feel the Need for Speed’s . . .
As far as the rig repair goes, we’re still waiting to hear back from the insurance company, but since our agents, (and friends) Chris and Charles Yust of C and C RV Insurance are on the case, we’re not worried.
A couple of days ago Peter and Patty Louchheim got in touch with us about getting together. They were coming up from Scottsdale to stay at the Fairgrounds RV Park in Prescott Valley to stay for a while. We first met at a rally a while back so it’s good to hear from them again.
Peter and Patty showed up at our rig a little after noon, and after talking for awhile, we then started talking lunch and decided on Speed’s Hanger Deli, a repeat for us, and a first time for them. They had read the blog post about our last visit and were happy to give it a try.
Jan and I did a rerun on our last visit, with her again getting the Rosie the Riveter,
while I got the Fatman, but on rye this time instead of sourdough.
Still delicious, and so big that both Jan and I took half home, along some of the great potato salad.
Peter got the 8oz Sirloin Steak Sandwich which looked so good I may try it next time, or the time after that. After all it’s not like we’re going anywhere anytime soon. Unfortunately, I lost track of what Patty ordered, but I’m sure it was good.
Since we hadn’t seen them in several years, we spent a good while just catching up. Like us, they have an older rig, a 1994 Safari, and are well aware of the trials and tribulations of keeping things running.
Since they’re staying over at the Fairgrounds RV Park in Prescott Valley, hopefully we’ll have a chance to get together again. After all it’s not like we’re going anywhere anytime soon.
Most of you have probably seen the video of the RV that was driving between Baton Rouge and New Orleans and had a blowout. If not, here it is.
This was all captured on the dashcam of a semi in the right lane. Makes me once again feel how lucky we were.
Note in the video how there was no one coming in the oncoming lane. These people were also lucky as you can see in this photo.
And here’s a link with more info about the crash.
Treadmill Mishap
May 12, 2016
Faceplant . . .
Yesterday while we were down in the Clear Lake area, I stopped by Fry’s Electronics to pick up a few things, one of which was a new video card for the new computer.
After trying a number of different non-effective fixes for my HDMI problem, I wanted to try one last thing. My old computer was set up with a 12ft. HDMI cable feeding video and audio to our 32” LCD TV at the front of the rig.
So if one of us wanted to show the other something on the computer, all we had to do was change the TV Input from HDMI1 to HDMI2 and there it is. And it still shows up on the computer monitor as well, which is fed by a DVI cable from the same video card.
But when I plugged the HDMI cable into the computer, it killed the monitor output, and nothing showed up on the TV either, neither video nor audio.
Now I knew the HDMI cable and the TV input were still good, since it still worked from my ASUS laptop. So my next step was to download the latest drivers from AMD Radeon. Then I deleted the old ones and installed the new ones.
And struck out again. Nothing changed.
So my last gasp was to just replace the video card and hope for the best. I once again deleted the old Radeon drivers, removed the old card, installed the new nVidia card, and turned it back on. I had deliberately bought a different brand card from the original one to be sure that there was no interference between the old ones and the new ones. The uninstall routines are bad about not deleting everything, sometimes causing some weird problems.
Of course when it came back up, with no drivers installed, it was in the blocky default 640 x 480 mode, or the Commodore 64 mode as we call it. I had already hooked up the HDMI cable and switched the TV over, but still had a black screen. But since the monitor was still working, maybe I was on the right path.
Putting the Driver Disk in the drive, I got the them installed and then did the mandatory reboot.
And, Voilà!, I had video on both the TV and the monitor. And sound too.
Now Jan can get back to streaming Big Love, so she’s happy.
We had planned to pick up Landon tomorrow afternoon at his home in Katy, and then bring him back here to Conroe to spend the night in the ‘Truck House’ as he calls it. There’s a lot of kids here on the weekend, and he can check out the playground and swim in the pool with the others.
But it may be on hold until next Friday, because Landon came down with a bad case of Treadmill Face.
He was upstairs playing and he decided try out the treadmill. He had been told a number of times to stay off, but I guess it was just too tempting.
So, turning it on, the result was a faceplant right to the mat. At least he didn’t lose another tooth.
Poor kid. But I bet he stays off the treadmill now.
And after hearing story, Jan and I couldn’t help but think of the Polar Bear on the Treadmill cartoon. Check it out.
Snow In Bend
May 12, 2017
April Showers Bring May . . . Snow?
Well, the Weather Channel has been promising/threatening snow for the last few days, but this morning Mother Nature finally delivered.
I looked out about 11:30 and it was really coming down, heavy enough that it was hard to see the rig next door for a few minutes. It only lasted for about 20 minutes, but nothing stuck since it was in the 40’s. But it was neat!
And then a little after noon, it did it again. Not quite as heavy, but it lasted a little longer. There’s more forecast for tonight, and with temps in the mid 20’s, it might actually stick. We’ll see.
About 12:30 we headed into Bend once again, first for another visit to The Sparrow Bakery, but the other, larger location this time. Located in a high-end neighborhood market area, it’s has a completely different, modern feel.
Like last time I again got a Cardamon Latte, this time with a better leaf.
Here’s last time’s.
We both started out with a cup of their Minestrone Soup. Very good, but more as a really good vegetable soup with pasta, well seasoned, but not very Italian tasting.
Jan once again got the Chicken Waldorf Croissant Sandwich, the same she got last time.
But she liked this one better, because it was made using white meat, not dark.
I decided to try their Monte Cristo Sandwich with roasted turkey, gruyere cheese, onion marmalade, raspberry preserves, served on battered slices of miche bread, a type of French sourdough.
This was one of those sandwiches where the whole is less than the sum of the parts. It wasn’t bad, but just didn’t have a lot of taste, kind of bland. I used to get the Monte Cristo sandwich at the late-lamented Bennigan’s years ago and it was really good.
One thing that might have help would if it had more raspberry preserves on it. A Monte Cristo should be a little sweet. It is dusted with powdered sugar after all. But the Sparrow version just had a schmear. In fact I couldn’t even taste it.
I’ll know better next time.
Before we left we did pick up a couple of their famous Cardamom Ocean Rolls.
Jan got the chocolate version while I went plain.
Coming back down US 20 we made a loop through the Fred Meyer’s to check it out for topping off the rig’s diesel on our way out of town this coming Wednesday. And at $2.55;/gallon, it’s one of the cheapest in the area.
While we were at Wal-Mart I came across this VR headset.
Though actually it’s only a holder for your smartphone, and not a full-blown VR headset with its own screen. And according to the box, it’s made especially for Wal-Mart.
But since this one only costs $12.88, and the others are $100’s of dollars, it’s a pretty good deal. It says it will fit smartphones up to 6”, and it will fit my new S8+ . . . almost.
It would fit perfectly if I didn’t have the Otterbox case on my phone, but it won’t quite latch shut. So I’ll have to find some way to keep it fastened . . . maybe Velcro.
As it turns out, there’s actually a lot of VR software available for the Android phones, roller coasters, space battles, sky diving, etc.
Pretty neat. Check it out.
Google has their own version called the Cardboard VR, because that’s what it’s made of. They give you the scored cardboard and a set of lenses, and you roll your own.
But since the Wal-Mart version comes with a headband and only cost $12.88, and the Google version cost $15, I know which one I’d pick.
And did.
Tomorrow, dinner at Cinco de Mayo down in La Pine.
Thought for the Day:
“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”
― Dr. Seuss
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